Perceived Pronunciation

Fascinating piece on this morning's Today Programme (listen here (requires realplayer)). Apparently, the Globe Theatre on Bankside is about to perform Troilus and Cressida complete with Elizabethan pronunciation as Shakespeareans would have understood it. Apparently there are all sorts of contemporary records on how English was pronounced at the time (a little west-country-ish is the answer). Fascinating stuff. Apparently the character Ajax would have been proncounced (roughly) 'ay jaykes,' or 'a toilet.' And thus ensued manys a pun. Interestingly, as anyone who's trawled their way through Ulysses knows, jakes was (and is) still in common parlance in Dublin.